Within months of the first Land Rover being made, in April 1948 they started appearing in colonial Africa. First to get their hands on this 20th-century packhorse were the British District Commissioners, District Officers and then white hunters. Conservationist George Adamson took delivery of only the fourth Land Rover to be imported to east Africa. His vehicle is still alive in Nairobi, but not ticking. In 1952, within hours of becoming Queen, Princess Elizabeth paraded through Nairobi in a Land Rover. That car
is still running.
"This was just after the war. It was not the dark ages. There were planes and trucks but what the Land Rover did was allow the District Commissioners and the like to get into the most remote corners of the continent," says Holgate, when we speak on the eve of his recent expedition from Mozambique to Namibia. "You imagine a villager seeing Livingstone for the first time. The first white man they had ever seen. At least he arrived on foot, or mule.
"But you imagine also hearing something that sounds like thunder rumbling through the forest, arriving into your village with three or four white guys in it. It is like you or me seeing a space ship full of aliens landing on our street."
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| Going gets tough through bush |
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Until 1950, only Basuto horsemen were able to scrabble up the 9400ft Sani Pass from South Africa up into the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. But when businessman David Alexander bought one of the first Series 1 Land Rover's, he was able to open a trading route into Lesotho.
Missionaries, too, quickly jumped on the Land Rover bandwagon. Compared with trucks or mules, it gave them wings into the deepest corners of Africa.
"I have to drive ten hours across the desert to get to Araouane, a little mining settlement where we have some parishoners," said Fabrice Desmouettes, a French missionary in Timbuktu. "The only alternative, even in the 21st century would be a camel train, one that carries salt from Taoudenni up near the Algerian border."
